Grover Cleveland, Author at Friends For Fullerton's Future

May 20, 2011May 20, 2011Behind Closed Doors

He’s Baaaaack! Matthew J. Cunningham Scores Some OCTA Gravy

With a little digging I have discovered that our old small government pal Matthew J. Cunningham, who raked in hundreds of thousands of bucks doing $200 an hour make-work for Rob Reiner’s tax-and-redistribute Children and Families Commission has found a new gig. Or, as is more likely the case, has had a gig given to him by his repuglican overlords.

A year ago FFFF exposed the hypocrisy of this guy making a small fortune off of the nanny statists and social engineers at the Children & Family scam. After that sweet run was terminated due to uncomfortable exposure, Cunningham landed a contract with the social engineers at the Orange County Transportation Authority to do…well, I’m not real sure.

It might be instructive to remember that two targets of Cunningham’s tiresome tongue treacle, Bill Campbell and Kurt Pringle, were OCTA Board members when he got this new arrangement last November. I wonder if this contract was result of an honest RFP or if was just laddled out to Mr. C. behind closed doors.

Here’s the agreement, noting Mrs. Cunningham as the “Principal” of the operation and the Mr. as “Project Manager.”

View the agreement

Hmmm. $30K a year with a scope of work that seems ridiculously inconsequential. Basically it entails reading city agendas for transportation issues and telling the OCTA who’s on city councils and going to some meetings. Tellingly, there is no listed OCTA project manager named to ride heard on the egregious wordsmith suggesting that OCTA contract quality control may well be no better than that exercised by the C & F Commissariat.

View the scope of work

Well, I guess this means we’ll be doing a public records request for work product and billing records.

P.S. Please note that Pacific Strategies is still using the phony “Suite C” address – hilarious given that the Cunninghams operate their business, whatever it does, out of their house.

April 7, 2011Orange County Government

Yes, Todd, We Almost Forgot

by Grover Cleveland26 Comments

I got an e-mail today from an old Friend who wanted to remind me about something.

A way back in the earliest days of the sordid regime of former OC Sheriff, now disgraced and incarcerated felon Mike Carona, something happened that should never be forgotten.

At the behest of Carona, on December 15, 1998 the OC Board of Supervisors removed the professional requirements for the job of Assistant Sheriff so that he could appoint two of his closest cronies and bag men, Don Haidl and George Jaramillo.

donhaidl — I always wanted a badge and a gun.

Jaramillo — Oh no, it's that Your Honor guy, again.

These miscreants proceeded to leave a slime trail in their wake that will always be a disgrace to the OCSD and the County of Orange. They were the henchmen who helped the Crooked Sheriff run his sleazy empire. And who do you suppose made Haidl and Jaramillo’s appointment possible along with the subsequent money laundering, bribing, selling of badges, CCWs, illegal deals with crooked lawyers and bail bondsmen, and interfering in criminal investigations?

ToddSlaughs — Yes. I did that. Didn't think you would remember.

That’s right: then Supervisor Todd Spitzer, himself a reserve officer in LA County, and surely somebody who should have known the problem he was creating: because the police are always telling us the importance of their professionalism. And there was Haidl, a shady businessman without a high school diploma and no police experience thrust into the second tier of leadership in one of the largest law enforcement agencies in the nation. Jaramillo was a cop from Garden Grove with none of the requisite command experience previously required.

Carona, Haidl and Jaramillo have now been convicted of crimes and their debauchery has been exposed in one embarrassing media reveation after another. That the scurvy Haidl and Jaramillo toppled over themselves in a rush to rat out Carona is the only redeeming part of the lurid story.

And who helped make all this possible? That’s right, the same guy who approved a retroactive pension spike for public safety employees, and who assures us he has the experience we need in a County Supervisor. Guess Spitzer figures nobody’s been paying attention. He is wrong.

April 3, 2011April 3, 2011Behind Closed Doors

So How Did Hugh Hewitt Get Onto the OC Children and Families Commission?

by Grover Cleveland20 Comments

Here’s a post we ran last summer. Why is it timely? Beacuse I noticed on Tuesday’s Board of Supervisor’s agenda an item to reappoint all of Supervisor Bill Campbell’s minions on the OC Children and Families Commission – including Hugh Hewitt – who is not legally qualified to be on the Commission in the first place.

Hewitt_Sterling_Travel_Panama_300x250 — Empires of Hypocrisy World Tour

P.S. Apparently you can join Hewitt on a cruise! If you decide to go be sure to ask him to explain the complicity of a “conservative” on a big, liberal tax-redistributionist scheme. Let us know if you get a coherent answer!

– admin

And what useful purpose does he serve there?

According to the State Health and Safety Code, and the County Code that created the “First Five Commissions” (pursuant to liberal activist Rob Reiner’s successful tax and redistribute Prop 10), the commissions are made up of people in the kiddie welfare biz.

Which brings us to Hugh Hewitt, whom Gustavo Arellano has described as a “conservative yakmouth.” We’ll leave aside the conservative tag for a bit and reflect upon the fact that Hewitt is a lawyer, talking head, writer (when not being ghost written for by Matthew J. Cunningham), etc.

Here are the minimum qualifications, per the Code, for the membership category in which Hewitt is enrolled:

A representative of a local child care resource or referral agency, or a local child care coordination group, or a local organization for prevention or early intervention for families at risk, etc…

Say what?

Since Hewitt is clearly not recognizable by the Code’s definition, we are entitled to inquire and speculate about the real reason this ‘pug is on the Commission. Could it be simply to help ratify contracts to his pals and buddies at the behest of Commission Chairman Bill Campbell, the avuncular cipher who represents the 3rd District on the County Board of Supervisors? Campbell appointed him.

And maybe he is there to help his old friend Cunningham put some sort of conservative polish on this big, liberal road apple.

April 2, 2011April 4, 2011Dead heads

Deb Pauly’s Anti-Terrorist Price Tag

by Grover Cleveland25 Comments

A while back we did a post on the shameful fearmongering that took place adjacent to an Islamic charity event in Yorba Linda. Our own paper tiger Ed Royce was on hand to help whip up the know-nothing rubes, as was the big mouth, pea-brained Deb Pauly who somehow got herself elected to the Villa Park City Council.

deborah-pauly-cropped_1-207x297 — Hate means never having to say you're sorry...

Pauly’s remarks were particularly inflammatory and unapologetic, consistent with her later non-apology as she tried to weasel out of what she had said. The consequence of her remarks was a big demonstration at the Villa Park City Hall in which her outraged opponents and her nutwing supporters showed up en masse to have at one another.

rally012 — Got something important to say?

The OC Sheriff Department that is responsible for protecting the mean streets of Villa Park brought in the troops, order was miraculously maintained, and everybody went home feeling pretty good about themselves.

And the price tag on the OCSD bill to the City of Villa Park? A City Hall insider places the figure at $13,500. And given the potential for much greater physical and financial damage the well-heeled folks of VP may consider themselves lucky they got off so cheaply.

But my question is this: why not present the bill to Deb Pauly herself?

March 15, 2011March 15, 2011Dead heads

Impending Invasion of Fullerton By Whack Jobs and Wing Nuts?

by Grover Cleveland31 Comments

Here’s a hilarious invitation received recently by a Friend:

Anyway, follow this link to watch the blood-spattered intro on the speaker’s marketing website: www.hi-caliber.org

splat — You too can join the counter-terrorist offensive!

Note the collision of paranoia, faith, and patriotism – the old formula. A biblical quote is de rigeur, Old Testament, of course, so as not to offend potential Jewish support (other Peoples of Faith, dontcha know – just took a left turn on that whole Jesus thing).

Watchmen on the Wall? Wait is this Lenny Bruce-type parody? No, alas.

Typical know-nothing nonsense, really. And notice the supposed “experts”- a PI operation from Redlands, California! It might actually be worth it to go and watch the scam perpetrated on the rubes after they load up on Sizzler salad bar and jug wine (does Sizzler still have a salad bar after 9/11?)

Ironically this Uber-patriot event is held on St. Pat’s Day by the same sort of people who despised and demonized Irish immigrants one hundred and fifty years ago.

March 7, 2011March 7, 2011Dead heads

Terror Warrior or Demagogue Punk?

by Grover Cleveland127 Comments

It’s time to share a video that’s gotten quite a bit of attention lately. Apparently some Islamic organization or other put on a benefit in Yorba Linda to raise funds for women’s shelters, hungry people, and dirty bombs.

Oops! No, the dirty bomb part didn’t make it into the press release, but you wouldn’t know it by the reaction of the spittle-fleck mob of know-nothings and uber-patriots who showed up to shower abuse on little kids with epithets against their heritage and their religion. Of course the real reason we are sharing this is that our own congresscreature, Ed Royce, was at the event to lend legitimacy to the goings on and help whip up the rubes.

Royce styles himself some sort of expert on foreign affairs, but his posts on Red County are little more than neo-con half-truth claptrap that is spooned out to him in little bite-sized morsels by the pro-Israel lobby in Washington.

Royce seems to like to deploy his alleged expertise to enhance his stature, but really, exercising one’s Napoleonic Complex at the expense of women and kids is a new low even for Ed, who has saddled Fullerton with every dim-witted repuglican barnacle we’ve been stuck with for the past twenty years so he can play big frog in little puddle.

P.S. Actually the best part of the video is when wing-nut Villa Park councilcreature Deborah Pauly informs her listeners that she doesn’t care if people think she’s krazy or not. Well, that will certainly make things easier for her in the future, shame-wise. It seems her son is a Marine, and apparently he and his buddies are just itching to send some towelheaded terrorists to Paradise.

The audience doesn’t care if we think they’re krazy, either.

February 27, 2011February 28, 2011About Us

Dan C and Art of Careful Reporting

by Grover Cleveland28 Comments

Quite recently Dan Chiemlewski of the deadly boring LiberalOC blog put up a post about censorship and civility or something. I noted this pearl from the self-righteous and sanctimonious Dan C., who styles himself a real reporter:

Comments on FFFF are a free for all and so is sock puppetry (thanks guys for that visit to my home by the Anaheim Police Department on the day of my son’s graduation for a comment by a “Dan Chimichanga-Cub Reporter” who threatened to cut Harry Sidhu’s brake lines. I’m sure you found it hysterical),

Well, here’s what the commenter actually said.

#9 by Dan Chimichanga, Cub Reporter on June 16, 2010

Sidhu better check his brake lines every time he gets into a car between now and November. That’s all I’m saying.

Now the context of the post (and others like it at about the same time) were all about how Dan Cs carpetbagging darling Lorri Galloway had vaulted back into third place in the 2010 4th District Supe’s race. Mr. Cub Reporter got the message and commented: if Hairbag Sidhu were to pull out of the race, then Anaheim Hills’ Precious Princess might assume the second position in the fall run off against Shawn Nelson. Hence the warning about brake linings was a snide shot at Galloway’s vaulting ambition perhaps playing out by disabling one of Hairball’s BMWs. That’s perfectly obvious to anyone who put the comment in context. It was joke.

Okay it wasn’t very funny, but it sure wasn’t a threat. And anybody who tried to make it into one was either disingenuous or a damn fool. And anybody who keeps persisting in this nonsense is deliberately lying. Not the sort of behavior you’d expect from a proud member of the OC journalism corps. Come to think of it I wonder what part Dan C. might have played in reporting that alleged “threat” to the Anaheim PD in the first place.

Sock puppet, out.

January 31, 2011February 1, 2011Behind Closed Doors

The Voice of OC(EA) Shoots; Scores!

by Grover Cleveland18 Comments

SantanaHeadShot — Hell, yes! Pookas 'n everything...

Okay, we’ve had some harsh criticism of the Voice of OC in the past, but today Norberto Santana came out with a great expose about OC Fair-employed lobbyist Dick Ackerman, husband of former carpetbaggress Linda, both of whom are residents of Irvine.

tricky dick — I told the DA everything was on the up and up. And that's what he went with!

Last year our do-nothing DA whitewashed Ackerman’s role in the ’09 OC Fair sale matter, saying he didn’t lobby the Legislature in violation of State law. How did the DA reach this conclusion? It wasn’t through investigative work, that’s for damn sure. Naturally, Amen Corner repuglicans like Matthew J. Cunningham crowed when the whitewash came out, but they’ll be eating crow soon enough. See, Santana got hold of Ackerman’s Nossaman Law Firm’s original billing records. And even though those records were laundered through some “environmental” consulting firm called LSA, the details prove what we here at FFFF have known since the fall of 2009: Ackerman was acting as a lobbyist and that in 2010 the DA was covering it up. The Nossaman billing records show phone calls to members of the State Legislature at $500 an hour. And that was illegal.

We didn’t have the billing, of course. We just had Dicky-boy’s own words:

“In order for the fair to be sold, it would require budget language to authorize the state to sell it,” he said. “I did some preliminary work to get the language in the budget.”

Preliminary work? Well, that’s one way of describing it; and that pesky budget language sure wasn’t going to jump into the bill all by itself, now was it?

Well, Friends, don’t expect any legal remedies anytime soon. Just remember the name: Ackerman. When you hear it, or read it, or smell it, you can bet some monkey business is afoot.

December 5, 2010December 6, 2010Orange County Government

The Todd Spitzer Streamroller

by Grover Cleveland14 Comments

Word on the political street is that Todd Spitzer, recently fired Deputy DA, former State Assemblyman, and former 3rd District County Supervisor is serious about running for his old job at the County Hall of Administration in 2012. How serious? Apparently he is locking up political consultants in order to dissuade potential opponents who are not already terrorized by Spitzer’s prodigious campaign warchest.

Two of the consultants are said to be Dave Gilliard who recently worked for Shawn Nelson and John Lewis, who didn’t. You all remember John Lewis, the repuglican who managed the ill-fated Tom Daly campaign behind the scenes. And when that tub went down, he scrambled rat-like up the bow line of the SS Sidhu – that was already taking on water badly. Will Lewis be working for free like he did for Sidhu? Quite possibly. See, Lewis is a campaign guy second and a lobbyist first and foremost.

Carolyn-Cavecche-and-Todd-Spitzer — Say goodnight, honey...

More word on the street has it that ‘pug sweatheart Orange mayor Carolyn Cavecche has already run screaming into the night, with Kurt Pringle and Bill Campbell, her sponsors not far behind. Geez, that didn’t take long.

Will anybody dare take on Spitzer and his precipitous mountain of dough? He’s got a pretty shaky record on pensions and that’s big right about now. Even so, there’s really no chance. See, Spitzer is running to mark time until he can have at our do nothing DA in 2014. If successful the 3rd District seat would open up and the political bowling pins would be reset.

November 20, 2010November 20, 2010About Us

Fleischman Puts ‘Pug in Repuglican

by Grover Cleveland15 Comments

You remember a fellow named Jon Fleischman, don’t you? Well, of course you do. He starred in the now historic 2007 holiday visit video to Dick Ackerman at the latter’s house inside a “secret, gated community” in Irvine.

An alert Friend just forwarded a post that was published on the completely hackish blog-for-sale, The Flash Report, of which Fleischman is proprietor. It’s a rousing condemnation of the practice of bogus non-profit, public benefit corporations staging legislative love-ins at plush resorts on Hawaiian islands. The things are bought and paid for by lobbyists who get to corner state legislators at fraudulent “conferences” that are nothing more than schmooze fests, golf and cocktails on the veranda. The Sac Bee gives more info on the latest scams, here. At the end you’ll read about “The Pacific Policy Research Foundation” that just perpetrated its annual scam on Kauai.

Sound familiar? It should.

We reported about the scam over a year ago, here. And the biggest offender of course was the hideous Linda Ackerwoman, bogus 72 AD candidate, who participated in the sham front known as the Pacific Policy Research Foundation that got her and husband, Dick Ackerman, annual junkets to Hawaii. And of course Ackerwoman was an officer of the bogus “charity.”

And to close the circle we have to recall that Fleischman was a big Ackerwoman cheerleader. Ackerwoman. No record, no accomplishment, no residence, no sale. What a difference a year makes.